The instant invention relates to a detachable tool combining bracket and method, whereby that means and method thus provided enables the detachable combining of a combination square tool and a tape measure tool, one each of said such tools, one to the other, in a relative spaced rule-perpendicular configuration respectively of said tools, thereby enabling a person to quickly and conveniently measure and mark off along the longitudinal edge of a workpiece equal or varying perpendicular lengths thereof, in either a right or left-hand use configuration of said tools in combination, after-which the respective tools may be quickly and conveniently detached from said tool combining bracket and the combination thereby accomplished, and thereupon be traditionally employed separately and unimpeded in other use applications when the combined use application thereof by way of the means and method of said tool combining bracket herein taught is not otherwise called for.
By way of definition at the outset, it is to be understood that the terms right-hand and left-hand use application of the subject tools in combination by way of the means and method of said detachable tool combining bracket is primarily in reference to the use application of said tools in combination with relative orientation respect in the utilization thereof upon a workpiece, either for purposes of user convenience or necessity such as when one end of a workpiece is obstructed by a wall or the like, or otherwise, and not per se necessarily to the right or left-hand predominance of a particular individual user thereof.
Various combinations of squaring device tools and tape measure tools are taught by the prior art, the most pertinent of which in view of the instant disclosure would be those most appropriately classified as being removable combinations of a tape measure with a square wherein the affixment means is integral to the square structure and does not thereby provide the versatility of both right and left-hand use application, exemplary of which would be those teachings as set forth respectively in U.S. Pat. No. 1,690,919 to Baine, dated Nov. 6, 1928; U.S. Pat. No. 2,571,569 to Greenwood, dated Oct. 16, 1951; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,113,382 to Lursen, dated Dec. 10, 1963.
A second classification of squaring device tool and tape measure tool combinations are set forth in those prior art disclosures teaching a fixed combination of the respective tools, by appropriate securement means, thereby not enabling the versatility of separate and unimpeded use application of the respective tools separately when the combination thereof is not called for, exemplary of which would be those teachings as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,581 to Andrews, dated Jan. 23, 1968, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,950 also to Andrews, dated May 12, 1970.
With respect to the combining bracket means disclosed by the instant invention, certain other bracket means have been heretofore taught which provide similar functional purposes in the removable combination of a tape measure tool with a squaring or gage device, but said bracket means are otherwise structurally distinguished, as seen respectively in U.S. Pat. No. 2,731,989 to Valcourt et al, dated Jan. 24, 1956, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,651 to Luedicke, Jr., dated July 2, 1963.
Various other squaring device tool and tape measure tool combinations, collateral to the instant invention, are also shown in the prior art, being either cutting guide teachings as set forth respectively in U.S. Pat. No. 2,964,848 to Gonsalves, dated Dec. 20, 1960, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,390,461 to Anderson, dated July 2, 1968, or other squaring device tool and tape measure tool fixed combination teachings which provide functionally limited measurement and marking use application when compared to the utility features of the instant invention, being respectively as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 501,774 to Dunnington, dated July 18, 1893; U.S. Pat. No. 530,111 to Krebs, dated Dec. 4, 1894; U.S. Pat. No. 1,323,742 to Burroughs, dated Dec. 2, 1919; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,498 to Barbee, dated Aug. 15, 1967.
It should be understood that some of the features of the instant invention have, in some cases, certain structural and functional similarities to teachings separately set forth in the prior art disclosures heretofore cited and briefly discussed. However, as will hereinafter be pointed out, the instant invention is distinguishable from said earlier inventions in one or more ways in that the present invention has utility features and new and useful advantages, applications, and improvements in the art of detachable tool combining brackets and methods, as applied to the combination of squaring device and tape measure tools, not heretofore known.